It is an increasingly common practice in the drilling industry to engage in pad site drilling, where the drilling rig is moved a short distance to drill a subsequent hole only a few feet away from the previous well. This practice maximizes revenues from individual leases and significantly reduces the cost associated with the downtime, disassembly, transport, and re-assembly of the drilling rig.
Drilling rigs require energy of various types to be delivered to the drill floor, including electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic energy. These energy sources are provided by generators and pumps located in housings located on skids or trailers adjacent to the drilling rig, but remote to the drilling floor. Other resources necessary to the drilling operation include communication paths. The energy and communication sources are transmitted between the generating houses to the drill floor by means of service lines, including tubes, pipes, conduits, cables, and the like. The service lines are normally a fixed length. Therefore, when a drilling rig is relocated between pads sites, it is necessary to relocate the energy source as well.
The distance between the generating source and the drilling rig spanned by the service lines is an obstacle to drilling operations. In particular, it is preferred to have vehicular access across the path of the service lines, without driving over and potentially damaging or destroying the service lines.
Another obstacle is the great weight of the collective service lines when run the distance between the connection source and the drilling rig. The distance may be as long as 150 feet, and the several service cables that run that distance will weigh tens of thousands of pounds.
Thus, there remains a need for improvements for the creation of a safe and reliable system for protecting service lines during drilling rig relocations on pad sites that permits the resource generating systems to remain stationary as the drilling rig is relocated to individual well locations.
In summary, the preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a unique solution to the engineering constraints and environmental challenges of providing a durable mechanically actuated steering system.